I have a green field of vision when I close my eyes. Whenever I try to go to sleep, a green and red glowing glob seems to ooze out of my eyes. It expands into a huge fog. It floats away as it is glowing red but mainly green only to return to my bedside. When it returns, it hoovers over me as my body vibrates. My lower spine becomes extremely hot and it feels like someone has a space heater blowing on the right side of my face. What am I experiencing and is this normal.
—Will, USA
Dear Will,
The experiences you describe sound quite disturbing, uncomfortable and not a normal part of meditation. The goal of meditation is to tap into the divine presence as it manifests as calmness, peace, joy, or other uplifting experiences.
It is possible that the disturbing experiences come because you are not relaxed and your concentration is not uplifted in meditation. Try doing some yoga postures prior to meditation to release blocks to energy in your body and spine. When you sit to meditate your body should be relaxed and your mind alert. Adjust your meditation seat so you can sit upright comfortably with a straight spine (allowing for the natural curves of the spine at the cervical, thoracic and lumbar areas).
Behind closed eyes gently uplift the gaze of your eyes as if gazing at a point between the eyebrows. Be mindful that you are not slipping into sleep during meditation. Let your breath flow freely, naturally, and slowly in the area of the belly, the diaphragm. Observe your breath as it enters and exits the nose. Place your concentration on the breath. Do not try to control your breath. As your breath flows naturally follow it mentally using a mantra, ‘I am’ on the inhale and ‘Spirit’ on the exhale. You can also use ‘Hong’ like ‘song’ (on the inhale) and ‘Sau’ like ‘saw’ (on the exhale) which is the Sanskrit of ‘I am Spirit.’ As you practice keep your concentration on the breath and mantra. If your mind wanders just bring it back. After a few minutes of using this technique, let the technique go by gently exhaling 3 times and then just sit silently in the peace awakened by the technique.
Because you have had some disturbing experiences with meditation I recommend you start this practice with just 5 minutes of meditation. If the disturbing images return, stop your meditation practice for that session.
I have described this meditation technique very briefly here and have, of necessity, left out details. I encourage you to look at our free Learn to Meditation mini-course on our website to fill in these details.
https://www.ananda.org/meditation/meditation-mini-course
Many Blessings,
Nayaswami Mukti
